Dr Stephen O'Neill
Biography
Dr Stephen O’Neill is Associate Professor in English and Shakespeare Studies and was formerly Head of Department. Stephen previously lectured in University College Dublin, where he completed his PhD, before joining English at Maynooth University.
His current research is focused on eco-critical approaches to literature that build from his Irish Research Council funded project LIT: Literature and Ireland's Trees. This led to the establishment of an arboreal research network, a series of guest lectures, and a digital exhibition featuring submissions from the general public.
He is the author of two monographs, Shakespeare and YouTube (London and New York: Arden Shakespeare / Bloomsbury 2014), which explores digital productions of Shakespeare on the social media platform through a variety of critical lenses including gender and race; and Staging Ireland: Representations in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama (Dublin: Four Courts, 2007), the defining study of Ireland as a recurrent text and context in early modern drama. He has edited the collection Broadcast Your Shakespeare: Continuity and Change Across Media (London and New York: Arden Shakespeare / Bloomsbury 2018); and co-edited The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Adaptation (Arden Shakespeare 2022), recently reviewed in Shakespeare Bulletin, and available in a paperback edition soon.
Stephen has also co-edited a special issue of the Shakespearean International Yearbook on "Shakespeare and Refugees" (2021), and Shakespeare and the Irish Writer (Dublin: UCD Press 2010). He has contributed to the broadening of Shakespeare studies into fan studies, through work on Coriolanus fanfic in The Shakespeare Geek; and TV culture and adaptation through articles on Shakespearean intertexts in HBO’s Westworld and maternal memories in Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet. He is also co-editor with Maria Pramaggiore of Kylie Minogue: Critical Insights into Pop Music and Media Celebrity (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024), for which he wrote a chapter on Minogue's affective fandoms.
He is the recipient of a Maynooth University Teaching Award (2023) and, in 2022, led the team that received a Maynooth University CTL Teaching Fellowship for the project “Eco-Journaling: Climate-Engaged Learning through Literature” for EN342: Lost Worlds.
He is a regular contributor to the conferences of the Shakespeare Association of America and the European Shakespeare Research Association. He's also a member of the Irish Renaissance Seminar. He has supervised PhD and research dissertations in Shakespeare studies and adaptation and very much welcomes applications from PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers in the following areas: Shakespeare studies; adaptation and digital cultures; arboreal humanities; early modern literature; and eco-criticism.
Research Interests
Research Projects
Edited Book
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | O'Neill, S and Diana Henderson (Ed.). (2022) The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Adaptation. London and New York: Arden Bloomsbury, [Link] | |
2021 | Stephen O’Neill and Ton Hoenselaars (Ed.). (2021) The Shakespearean International Yearbook 19: Special Section, Shakespeare and Refugees. London: Routledge, [Link] | |
2018 | O'Neill, Stephen (Ed.). (2018) Broadcast Your Shakespeare: Continuity and Change Across Media. London: Bloomsbury / Arden Shakespeare, [Link] | |
2010 | Stephen O'Neill and Janet Clare (Ed.). (2010) Shakespeare and the Irish Writer. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, [Link] |
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2023 | Stephen O'Neill (2023) 'Arborealities, or Making Trees Matter in Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees'. ISLE Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, . [Link] https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isad040 [Full-Text] | |
2021 | O’Neill S. (2021) '“And Who Will Write Me?”: Maternalizing Networks of Remembrance in Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet'. Shakespeare, 17 (2):210-229. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2021 | O’Neill S. (2021) 'Bring yourself back online, Old Bill: Westworld’s media histories, or six degrees of separation from Shakespeare'. Cahiers Elisabethains, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2020 | O'Neill, Stephen (2020) 'Shakespeare's Hand, or the strangers' case: Remediating Sir Thomas More in the context of the Refugee Crisis'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, . [Link] | |
2019 | O'Neill, Stephen (2019) 'Finding Refuge in King Lear: From Brexit to Shakespeare's European Value'. Multicultural Shakespeare, 19 (34). [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2018 | O'Neill, Stephen (2018) 'Shakespeare’s Digital Flow: Humans, Technologies and the Possibilities of Intercultural Exchange'. Shakespeare Studies, 46 :120-133. [Link] [Full-Text] | |
2018 | O'Neill, Stephen (2018) 'Beyond Shakespeare's land of ire: Revisiting Ireland in English Renaissance drama'. Literature Compass, 15 (10). https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12491 | |
2016 | O'Neill, Stephen, and Maurizio Calbi (2016) 'Introduction: #SocialMediaShakespeares'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, X (1). [Link] [Full-Text] | |
2016 | O'Neill, Stephen (2016) '‘It's William Back from the Dead’: Commemoration, Representation, and Race in Akala's Hip-Hop Shakespeare'. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 16 (2):246-256. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.jproxy.nuim.ie/doi/10.1111/sena.12192/full [Full-Text] | |
2015 | O'Neill, S (2015) 'Shakespeare and Social Media'. Literature Compass, 12 :274-285. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2015 | O'Neill, Stephen (2015) 'Teaching and Learning Guide for: “Shakespeare and Social Media”'. Literature Compass, 12 (7). [Link] [DOI] | |
2014 | O'Neill, Stephen (2014) 'Ophelian Negotiations: Remediating the Girl on YouTube'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, IX (1). [Link] http://www.borrowers.uga.edu/1281/show [Full-Text] | |
2011 | Stephen O'Neill (2011) 'Uploading Hamlet: Agency, Convergence and YouTube Shakespeare'. ANGLISTICA, 15 :63-75. [Link] [Full-Text] |
Book Chapter
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | O'Neill, Stephen (2022) '‘The time invites you’, or Making Hamlet your Digital Contemporary: Online Adaptation and Community' In: Agrégation anglais 2023. William Shakespeare. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Paris : Ellipses. | |
2022 | O'Neill, Stephen (2022) '“Quoting Machines: Shakespearean things in and beyond HBO’s Westworld”' In: Performing Shakespearean Appropriations Essays in Honor of Christy DesmetPerforming Shakespearean Appropriations Essays in Honor of Christy Desmet. Lanham : Rowman and Littlefield. [Link] | |
2020 | O'Neill, Stephen (2020) 'Hiddleston–Shakespeare–-Coriolanus, or Rhizomatic Crossings in Fanfic' In: Shakespeare and Geek Culture. London : Arden Bloomsbury. [Link] | |
2016 | O’Neill S. (2016) 'Beyond MacMorris: Shakespeare, Ireland and critical contexts' In: Celtic Shakespeare: The Bard and the Borderers. [DOI] | |
2018 | O'Neill, Stephen (2018) 'Quoting Shakespeare in Digital Cultures' In: Shakespeare and Quotation. Cambridge : Cambridge UP. [Link] | |
2017 | O'Neill, Stephen (2017) 'Theorizing User Agency in YouTube Shakespeare' In: The Shakespeare User: Critical and Creative Appropriations in a Networked Culture. New York : Palgrave Macmillan. [Link] | |
2017 | O'Neill, Stephen (2017) '“In fair [Europe], where we lay our scene” Romeo and Juliet, Europe and digital cultures' In: Romeo and Juliet in European Culture. Amsterdam : John Benjamins. [Link] [Full-Text] | |
2014 | O'Neill, Stephen (2014) '“YouTube, Shakespeare and the Sonnets: Textual Forms, Queer Erasures”' In: Digital Shakespeares: Innovations, Interventions, Mediations, special issue of The Shakespearean International Yearbook. London : Ashgate. | |
2013 | O'Neill, Stephen (2013) 'Beyond MacMorris: Shakespeare, Ireland and critical contexts' In: Celtic Shakespeare: The Bard and the Borderers. London : Ashgate. | |
2007 | O'Neill, Stephen (2007) '1599: Sir John Oldcastle, the Irish Wars and the Elizabethan Stage' In: Ireland in the Renaissance, c. 1540-1660. Dublin : Four Courts Press. |
Magazine Article
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | O'Neill, Stephen (2022) What's your favourite reference to trees in Irish literature?. [Magazine Article] [Link] |
Other Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | Stephen O'Neill (2021) 'On the ‘Spenser Dispenser’' Spenser Forum, 51 (3) . [Link] |
Conference Contribution
Webinar
Year | Publication | |
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2023 | Stephen O'Neill (2023) 'The book that gave us Shakespeare: Four hundred years of the First Folio, Inspiring Ideas at Trinity, TCD. [Webinar] [Link] | |
2022 | O'Neill, Stephen (2022) “Writing with Trees: in conversation with Lynn Buckle. [Webinar] [Link] | |
2022 | O'Neill, Stephen (2022) Texts and Trees: Forays into Ireland's Arboreal Cultures in conversation with Dr Anna PIlz and Dr Brandon Yen. [Webinar] [Link] |
Radio Presentation
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | O'Neill, Stephen (2022) Literature and Ireland’s Trees, Mooney Goes Wild. Dublin: [Radio Presentation] [Link] |
Video recording / TV
Year | Publication | |
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2023 | Stephen O'Neill (2023) Trees: 10 Things to Know About. [Video recording / TV] [Link] |
Conference Publication
Book Review
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | O'Neill, Stephen (2022) Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration Theatre to YouTube By Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens (2021). Shakespeare Studies. [Book Review] [Link] | |
2010 | Dr Stephen O'Neill (2010) Review of J.B Lethbridge (Ed.). Shakespeare and Spenser: Attractive Opposites (Manchester University Press, 2008). [Book Review] | |
2008 | Stephen O'Neill (2008) The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street by Charles Nichol, The Arts Show, RTE Radio One. [Book Review] | |
2006 | Dr Stephen O'Neill (2006) Review of Deana Rankin, Between Spenser and Swift: English Writing in Seventeenth Century Ireland (Cambridge University Press, 2005). [Book Review] | |
2004 | Dr Stephen O'Neill (2004) Review of Clare Carroll, Circe’s Cup: Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Ireland (Notre Dame University Press, 2001). [Book Review] | |
1999 | Dr Stephen O'Neill (1999) Review of Curtis Perry, The Making of Jacobean Culture (Cambridge University Press, 1999). [Book Review] http:/www.hull.ac.uk/renforum/v3no2/oneill.htm |
Reviews
Year | Publication | |
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2016 | Stephen O'Neill (2016) Review: Reason in Madness, Draíocht Theatre. [Reviews] [Link] | |
2015 | Stephen O'Neill (2015) “Of Crowns, Nations and Memory Machines: Druid reimagines Shakespeare’s Histories.”. [Reviews] [Link] | |
2014 | Stephen O'Neill (2014) Review of Brigit by Tom Murphy for Exuent. [Reviews] [Link] |
Teaching Interests
In 2022, he received a Maynooth University CTL Teaching Fellowship for the project “Eco-Journaling: Climate-Engaged Learning through Literature” as part of EN342. A key aim for the project team (which includes Dr Evan Bourke, Prof Pat Palmer, Dr Kevin Tracey, and Alan Waldron) is to involve students through direct participation in class, through a campus tree-trail and workshops with visual artist Susan Leen. But we want to go beyond the timeframe of the module itself through a creative exhibition featuring the group’s work and also launch student-leadership roles as “MU Climate Heroes”. By developing greater learner partnerships, we can together explore how the study of literature helps us as global citizens to apprehend, process, and identify actions as we face the climate crisis.
Digital Badges:
All Aboard digital badge for “Flipped Classroom”. All Aboard Digital Skills in Higher Education. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
All Aboard digital badge for "Design Thinking”. All Aboard Digital Skills in Higher Education. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.